JIAMUSI, China — China is considering building a dam to reduce the impact of a river-borne toxic spill expected to arrive in a Russian city early next week, state media and a government spokesman said today.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong media reported the apparent suicide of an official in the upstream city of Jilin, where a Nov. 13 chemical plant explosion caused the spill. Vice Mayor Wang Wei was found hanged, the Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported.

China's government has vowed to punish anyone found responsible for the explosion or spill. The head of the country's industrial safety agency warned this week that anyone who tried to hide evidence would be punished.

The spill dumped 100 tons of benzene and other chemicals into northeastern China's Songhua River, disrupting water supplies to millions.

The government didn't announce that the Songhua had been poisoned until 10 days later on Nov. 23.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A suicide bomber who jumped on a bus after security checks had been completed detonated an explosives belt among passengers heading to a Shiite city today, killing up to 30 people and wounding nearly 40, officials said.Most of those killed were on the bus, which was gutted by flames, but several people gathered around a nearby food stall were also killed, police said. A hospital official said at least 37 people were injured.Police said the attacker waited until the bus was slowly pulling away from the station, then jumped on board to avoid security checks. Police said the death toll was especially high because the blast triggered secondary explosions in gas cylinders stored at the food stall.

TEHRAN, Iran — Mourning and anger mixed in Iran Wednesday as a newspaper reported that officials may have known of problems with a military transport before it took off and slammed into an apartment building, killing at least 115 people.The four-engine turboprop was carrying journalists to cover military maneuvers in southern Iran when it suffered engine failure and crashed Tuesday, killing all 94 people aboard and at least 21 in the building. At least 90 people were injured.A photographer for the Hamshahri newspaper who was aboard the flight told his wife before takeoff that the pilot was refusing to fly the C-130, the newspaper reported Wednesday.The photographer "called his wife and told her that the flight was delayed apparently because of a technical problem and the pilot refuses to take off," the newspaper said.The plane was returning to make an emergency landing at Tehran's Mehrabad airport when it hit the 10-story building in the Azure residential district.